


A Thousand Eyes

by orphan_account



Series: Robot With a Human Brain [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Child Abuse, Eventual Threesome, M/M, Modern AU, Pedophilia, Road Trip, Underage Sex, lots of attempts to justify terrible things, teen runaway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-08
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-04-19 19:47:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4758737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After finishing University Armin and Eren finally get to go on the 'Springfield Tour' they had been planning since they were kids. Six Springfields after they set off they encounter Jean, a sullen teen runaway with an odd idea of payback.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Thousand Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Congrats if you can guess the these that the parts are being names with here. There is one last part after this and the title for that completes the quote... so...
> 
> This was also for a [SNK Kink Meme](http://snkkink.dreamwidth.org/2848.html?thread=4054560) fill. Again this isn't too different to the original but I have smoothed out some of the bits that were glaringly bothersome in terms of my writing (honestly the whole thing is a bit glaringly bothersome in terms of content huhuh)

Armin wrinkled his nose as Eren spoke despite the fact his mouth was full of scrambled egg, baked beans, mushrooms and bacon. This combination along with the fried bread, sausages, and black pudding looked appetising on the plate as it swam in grease, but Armin was seeing it half-chewed and rolling around between Eren's grease slicked lips and it made him feel sick. The sight opposite was in no way going to help Armin recover from the splitting headache he had so he shielded his eyes from the view and sipped at his tepid coffee before swallowing down a couple of ibuprofen tablets.

"You shouldn't take those right after you've taken the paracetamol, you know," Eren noted stoutly, pointing his knife at Armin for emphasis. Armin simply shrugged because the headache meant he really didn't care and all he could really focus on was the fragment of bean that flew from Eren's mouth as he spoke and landed on the worn plastic tabletop between them. "You should take paracetamol, then two hours later ibuprofen, and if you want you can throw aspirin into the mix two hours after that. Either way you should alternate them every two hours because then you're not giving the pain the chance to get you."

"How interesting," Armin muttered.

"Actually forget the aspirin because the only important thing that does is thin your blood. I wouldn't want you turning haemophilic on me."

"Isn't that a genetic disorder?" Armin asked.

"Well, you never know. You could suddenly mutate it by taking too many pain killers."

"I'm not taking medical advice from a Sociology student."

"A sociology _graduate_ ," Eren corrected. "Besides, my dad is a doctor."

"Can you just hurry up so we can get out of here?"

Eren nodded and swallowed the food in his mouth with visible difficulty. Armin would really appreciate it if Eren took smaller mouthfuls of food because they had only been on this road trip for a fortnight and Armin had already had to use the Heimlich manoeuvre twice. But at least this way Eren would finish his food faster and they could think about driving somewhere to rest.

When they left the diner they walked right into the harsh glare of the sun and Armin really wished the weather was a bit more miserable. If the weather was at least as miserable as Armin felt then he wouldn't feel like the sun was prying his skull open quite so eagerly.

"I think I need hair of the dog," Armin mumbled.

"You really should have eaten something. Fried food is like the cure for hangovers you know."

"Do you still keep a load of crap in the glove compartment?"

"Glove...? Oh, my car. Yeah. Why?"

Armin didn't answer and instead walked over to where Eren had parked. He ignored the question of whether he wanted the car keys and opened the door with ease. As he eased himself into the passenger seat he heard Eren swear as he rushed over as though that would make up for the fact he had forgotten to lock his car. Armin found the sunglasses he was looking for - the huge frames were hideous and they were probably joke glasses bought by Mikasa but they seemed as though they would fit their purpose. When he slid them on the first thing he saw through the windscreen of the car was a shifty looking kid. Armin had seen that kid earlier, around half an hour ago before they had gone into the diner, and he was surprised to see him still wondering around the car park.

"I'm so sorry, baby. I'll never leave you again. I promise I won't leave you unlocked ever. You will be locked all the time and some big bad thief will never take you away from me, please forgive me," Eren muttered quietly as he caressed the steering wheel of his car.

"Will you please shut up?"

"Don't get snippy with me. You're the one who can't handle your alcohol."

"Shush, alright."

"Don't worry, I'm sushing, sourpuss."

Armin slammed the door shut and winced at the sound before tipping his head back against the headrest and closing his eyes. Eren's door was still open and Armin could hear the whoosh of cars rushing by on the road and a baby squealing somewhere in the car park. There were other voices too and, try as he might, Armin couldn't block out the fuzz of distant conversation. At least Eren had shut up.

"Aren't we driving?"

"It looks like something's kicking off over there," Eren said. In response to the obnoxious shoulder-shaking, Armin sat up with a groan and squinted through the dark lenses of the sunglasses to see what Eren was pointing at. He couldn't see much on account of all the other cars in the way, but due to Eren conveniently leaving the driver side door open, he could faintly hear enough of the commotion to get the gist of it.

A large, sweaty, red-faced man was shouting at the kid Armin had noticed earlier. The kid looked terrified as he backed away and tried to talk. Armin groaned inwardly and wished he hadn't woken up that morning. He could have done with some more rest, even if it was a cramped nap in the passenger seat of Eren's smelly old car, especially as he knew exactly what Eren's next thoughts would be.

"We should help that kid," Eren said.

"Fucking hell," Armin said. He didn't get the opportunity to lodge an official protest as Eren had leapt from the car and was striding across the car park to where the action was. Eren kept walking without even one backward glance. Eren's conviction that Armin would back him up was becoming quite the burden. Armin sighed tiredly and stepped from the car. Then he stretched languidly, flinching slightly at the sound of Eren yelling. For almost twenty years Armin had known Eren and he had never seen him approach any sort of conflict without all guns blazing. Armin resettled the sunglasses on his face before he strolled over to the small cluster that was drawing witnesses.

"...so who the hell do you think you are to be yelling at an innocent kid without checking all the facts first, idiot?"

"You think you can come here and start yelling at me, princess? I don't need to go checking no facts, I got all the facts I need right here." The man stepped close enough to stare down at Eren as he cracked the knuckles of clenched fists right at Eren's eye-level. Armin stopped. Eren might have been able to take a punch but this was the sort of stuff Armin liked to stay out of.

"I'm not trying to start a fight," Eren began to yell, Armin cringing as he stifled a laugh because Eren was always trying to start a fight, "I'm just saying that you should leave the damned kid alone!"

"That kid's damned all right. He took something that don't belong to him and now he's gonna pay."

"He didn't take anything, look at him. Does that kid look like he would steal anything?"

Armin looked the kid over and if he was being honest he would only be able to answer yes. The kid looked desperate and shifty and more than capable of theft.

"Yes!" The large man all but roared, probably making the same observations as Armin.

Eren faltered for a second before he grabbed at the kid and dragged him before the man. The kid looked as though being the centre of attention was the last thing he wanted, and Armin did feel a bit sorry for him, but Eren was the type to cling to an idea until he somehow made it work. Usually Eren wasn't very successful in that respect and it was Armin who had to make ideas and plans work by trying things out, so it was a good job he was here when everyone involved was risking personal injury.

Eren snatched the boy's backpack and roughly unzipped it so he could start rifling through it and pulling out clothes like magician's handkerchiefs as he said, "What the hell is it then? What has he supposedly stolen from you? This? This?"

Armin sniffed and wiped at his nose, realising this might actually take a while as Eren patted down the boy's pockets and started tossing old tissues, snack wrappers and crumpled receipts from the depths. The large, angry man glared down at Eren and the boy as he watched on. He wasn't the only one watching with a suspended interest because a crowd had gathered in time to see Eren littering all for the defence of this poor boy. It seemed the crowd were really in for something when a sparkle and a tinkle fell from Eren's hand to the pavement and the boy yanked himself free from Eren's hold to throw himself onto whatever the object was. He scrambled at the pavement and started speaking for the first time.

"No, no, not that."

"That's it, that's what he stole!"

"Hold on," Armin said firmly as he stepped into the middle of this spectacle. He regretted crouching down because the shift just made the blood slosh around in his head and reminded him of the nasty hangover that refused to leave. All the same, he gently placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, noticing the way his hair had been styled into one of those undercuts Armin had seen around lately, before getting the boy to loosen his grip around the prize in his hand.

Dog tags. He stared down at them for a long moment, wondering why this boy hand them and why he was so desperate to maintain his possession of them. He was much too young to have been in the army, so if they were genuine it would be likely they really did belong to the angry man, though if they were a fashion statement they might be the boy's after all.

"Can I have these for a moment?" Armin asked the boy.

"No."

"Just for a second. I can tell they're precious to you but we just need to verify something." After a moment the boy loosened his grip enough for Armin to prise the dog tags away from the boy's grip. He stood and turned towards the still red-faced man and said, "This is what he stole?"

"Yes! I served the country and I don't need some punk disrespecting me like this."

 

“How did he steal them from you?” Armin asked placidly. It was always better to keep a cool head in the face of someone whose skin changed shades for each fresh wave of anger. Witnesses always tended to side with the more rational party, though Armin had learnt that wasn’t the case if the opponent was the most popular kid in school. The huge, angry man was haggard and scruffy and looked about as bad as Armin felt. He wasn’t likely to be the most popular guy in this car park.

The man was as slow as he was unpopular. His face swelled at Armin’s question. He looked ready to pound Armin and a quick glance was assurance that Eren was close enough to wreak some sort of havoc if need be.

“If that question is too difficult, then, where do you normally keep your dog tags?”

“Hang ‘em on the rearview,” was the gruff reply.

“In your car.”

“I don’t need no rearview for walkin’.”

Armin smiled sweetly. “Of course.” He didn’t need to ask the obvious question because Eren’s stage-whisper of, “The fuck was this kid doing in his car?” was enough to prod a reaction from the almighty man.

“He must’ve broken in!”

“Yes, this child must have broken into your car just to steal your dog tags. Not the handful of change on full display or the car itself. Just these dog tags that wouldn’t have any value to him whatsoever.”

“He could sell ‘em!”

“To who? Pardon me, I just think that these really aren’t your dog tags. Maybe yours are still in your car after all.”

The man gaped for a moment, the colour draining from his face until he was a mottled beige colour before he remembered himself. He rounded on Armin as his thoughts seemed to come back to him but it was a bright, hot day and Armin's head was pounding and he had no patience for this.

“After all of that-“

"Check your pockets, check your vehicle, check wherever you were sitting inside. If you had your precious dog tags with you today then you will find them if you look," Armin said. The man looked as though he wanted to punch Armin's face into a mulch after being so thoroughly patronised but he did as he was told and clambered clumsily into his car and delved into the footwells of the front seats. Armin felt a mixture of relief and validation when the man emerged with a twitch of tensing arm muscles and the subtle sneer. Armin added, "Eren could help you look if you have any trouble."

Eren opened his mouth to protest but shut his mouth when he noticed the look Armin sent his way, and the large man, whose anger seemed to have been quelled, quietly rejected the offer. Obviously he was not going to say in front of the crowd whether or not he truly had just found what he had been looking for in his car, but Armin did wonder whether the man would follow the debacle long enough to pretend to search elsewhere.

Armin didn't care enough to observe the results though. He had turned on his heel and was back at the car by the time Eren caught up with him.

"What the hell was that?"

"Some people don't look for things properly, or they forget to be thorough."

"No, stupid, I'm talking about offering my services to help people find things," Eren grunted petulantly.

"He didn't lose his dog tags, he wouldn't have asked for your help. That wouldn't have done anything for him to save face." Armin pushed the sunglasses up his nose and went to open the passenger side car door but something fell from his hand - a sparkle and a tinkle - and Armin had apparently forgotten he was holding anything at all. He was building himself up for the struggle of bending down to pick it up when the kid from earlier snatched it up. "Oh, yeah. Sorry."

The kid glanced at Armin with the dog tags clenched tightly in his hands as he held them against his chest along with the higgledy-piggledy mess that was his backpack. Eren was a bit too enthusiastic. The kid's eyes darted between Armin and Eren on the other side of the car before he tugged on the strap of his backpack, dipped his chin slightly and murmured, "Thanks. Uh. Thank you for getting me out of trouble."

"No worries," Eren said, banging his hand on the roof of his car twice. He yelped at the sting of the hot metal and Armin thought it served him right after he recovered from his flinch at the sound. For some reason it made the kid smile grimly as he shifted the weight on his feet and looked the two friends over. Eren didn't seem to notice the almost appraising nature of the boy's gaze and he asked, "Are you with anyone?"

"What?"

"Are you travelling alone?" Eren clarified. There was some reluctance before the boy answered,

"Yes. I'm alone."

"Where are you headed?"

"C-California," he kid said. His grip on the dog tags he had picked up tightened infinitesimally.

"Just California in general? Where abouts are you going? Are you really travelling alone the whole way? Are you off to visit family or something? When do you need to get there?" Eren asked without a breath in between each question. The boy hesitated for a long moment and Armin wasn't even sure he would be able to come up with answers to any of these questions. Any way Armin looked at it, the boy was a runaway and he wouldn't respond too well to Eren's interrogation. But the boy answered, albeit with his eyes fixed on the ground, and said,

"I know a guy."

"Do you know how you're getting there?" Eren asked.

The boy shrugged and muttered, "I got a bus into Chicago."

That didn't explain anything about the boy's plans to get any further than a little diner on the outskirts of Chicago. Eren had made his way round the car buy this point and was giving the boy a measuring look as he said, "Conveniently enough, we're on our way across country. You may as well come with us seeing as we're all going the same way."

"You'll take me?"

"Of course we will."

The kid looked like he didn't believe it one bit. His gaze rapidly flitted between Eren and Armin and Armin nodded in agreement just in case it was unanimous approval the boy was looking for. It might not have been because the boy still looked uncertain about something. He said, "Really?" one more time.

"What's your name?" Armin asked.

"Jean."

"It's nice to meet you, Jean. I'm Armin, and this is Eren, and we really will take you where you need to be."

Very quietly, still not really looking at either of the men before him, Jean said, "Thank you."

 

 

Over the next couple of hours, Armin learnt that Jean was quiet in the sullen way that accompanied childish defiance and it reminded him a lot of a young Eren. Of course Armin couldn't exactly vocalise this because Eren still had a lot of that petulance about him and he would probably thump Armin for making the comment. It was true though. There was something about Jean's quiet that wasn't just about him being shy around strangers and it really was just like Eren's long silences when he was stewing over something.

Eren himself seemed a lot more talkative now that there was a new addition to the car. He was giving Jean a comprehensive history of his car, not that much of it was really sinking in. Armin was watching the scenery speed by outside the window as he tried his hardest to block the noise out but he couldn't help chuckling softly as Eren recounted the awkward fumble he had with Mikasa in the backseat of the car. Armin turned around at this bit to see what Jean's reaction was but he did nothing but stare down at his folded hands. He obviously wasn't listening because Armin remembered all the other people who had sat in that spot when Eren mentioned that little anecdote and there was usually at least some sound of revulsion.

"Eren," Armin interrupted.

"What? We're almost at the best part, you know."

"He's not even listening. You should save that for later."

"Ugh, fine.  Are you thinking of driving any time soon?"

"Can't, I've got a headache."

"Still?" Eren grumbled. "That's such a lie because if you had a headache you would have had a nap by now."

"I'm not lying. Besides, I can't fall asleep on an empty stomach."

Eren frowned over at Armin for a fraction too long for Armin to feel entirely safe in this speeding cocoon of metal. He seemed to mull this over for a while before he muttered, "I guess we could go for a burger or something. Hey, kid, Jean, are you hungry?"

"Not really."

"Hmm? Well we're hungry and you might as well have a little something because you haven't eaten in hours," Eren shrugged, not even glancing back at Jean. Armin was peering over his shoulder at him though and he didn't quite believe Jean's denial that he was hungry. He pushed that thought from his mind though when Eren told him to come up with food ideas by searching on his phone.

After around half an hour of directing Eren to the restaurants he found on Google Maps, and Eren being obtuse and claiming the instructions were not clear enough, they finally pulled into a side street with a scruffy looking cafe sitting pretty amongst a mismatched row of houses. Armin was the first out of the car and he rolled his eyes at Eren's squawking about wearing a seat belt at all times. Unfortunately Eren was still going on about seatbelts after going through the motions of his Leaving The Car Ritual - which involved clearing random bits of crap off the dashboard and into the glove compartment - and actually getting out of the car. Jean was even slower than that, Armin noticed as Eren began to rattle off made-up statistics about car accidents.

After ordering their food - three baked potatoes with chilli because Eren copied Armin after deciding that sounded better than what he was originally going to order, and because Jean was claiming he wasn't hungry so Eren decided he should have the same thing as them – the wait started in the quiet cafe.  

There wasn’t much space for the waitress to manoeuvre between the tables and she had to shuffle sideways to get from their table to the counter to the table in the corner of the cade that was groaning under the weight of plates and cups ordered by the only other customer. The chairs were all painted bright colours aside from the scuff marks around the legs which must have been caused by their proximity to each other and some errant feet that could not help but scrape and kick at the chairs as they passed. In stark contrast to the chairs were the plywood tables which didn’t look at all safe. Perhaps structurally sound, there were plenty of rough edges which could lodge splinters into flesh with a careless swipe.

Even though the tables hadn’t been painted or treated, the leftover paint from the chairs must have been used on the walls which were emblazoned with huge cartoon insects in luridly coloured murals. Armin had no idea how that was remotely appetising. He was staring down an obnoxiously winking bluebottle fly when Jean cleared his throat. 

"You didn't have to order me any food, you know."

"Don't be stupid," Eren said bluntly. "You must be starving and you would be an idiot to go on any longer without eating."

"I'm really not hungry," Jean mumbled as he gave Armin a pleading look. He seemed reluctant to speak and his voice almost got swallowed up in the noises floating over from the kitchen. Armin didn't really want to make excuses for the boy that would encourage not looking after himself though.

"You should eat. You might think that you're not hungry but when you start eating you will probably be glad of getting something in your belly," Armin reasoned. There was a second when defeat passed over Jean's features at the realisation that he didn't have any allies here. It took quite a bit of effort not to feel as though helping out this kid was a bad thing.

"I don't want to be a bother."

"We're already driving you across the country," Eren noted, bewildered. "How is eating food a bother?"

"I mean, I am really grateful for the fact that you're giving me a lift, but I don't have any money."

Eren gave Armin a puzzled look but before he could offer any assistance, a rather pink Jean was speaking in a strained voice.

"Thank you for everything, really," Jean said, "I just feel that I need to pay you guys back if I can't pay my own way."

"Wow, listen," Eren said, sitting back in his seat and glancing back to Armin for assurance. "It's fine, okay. We don't want your money, okay? It's better that you come with us and we know you're safe instead of catching a ride with some creep, right?"

Armin nodded in agreement but there was something about the way the boy across the table was sitting, and the awkward set of his shoulders, that filled Armin with a sense of foreboding.

"But I would feel better if I could do something for you. Both of you, either of you, I just want to... not be a burden."

"You're not a burden," Armin said. "You won't be."

"Yeah, but. I'm actually quite experienced, you know. I could do anything for you and I'd make it really good."

"What?"

As reluctant as he was to say it, Jean was also teetering on the edge of needing to vocalise his thoughts at the risk of bringing himself more embarrassment. He was bright red, and Armin wanted to tell him to breathe before the boy said, "I'll let you do stuff to me. Like, I'll suck you off and stuff too. I'm really good at it."

Armin wasn't surprised to see a queasy looking Eren glancing around the cafe as though there were anybody to hear those words. The lone customer in the corner was making enough of a racket guzzling down their plate of fried meat that Armin was sure their conversation was mostly private. The waitress might prove to be a different sort of problem though. She was nowhere in sight but that was little comfort when Jean’s words were no doubt enough to tip off even the most casual gossip.

"Listen, I don't know if this is supposed to be one of those honey trap things but me and Armin, we really aren't into that stuff. You're a kid, right? We just want to look out for you and make sure you get to where you need to be. As long as we know you're safe, it's cool. We don't need anything like- we don't want you to feel that you need to do anything like that, right, Armin?"

"Yeah, absolutely," Armin said. "I know we're strangers, so it might not mean much, but as long as we know you're alright then that is all the payment we'll need."

"So stop worrying about that, right?"

Jean nodded meekly and Armin felt his insides twist with worry. As a kid he would never have even thought of offering something like that - then again he would never have even thought of running away, so it was obvious that he and Jean were very different. He couldn't help but feel concerned for this boy who had assured them he was experienced, that accepting his offer would be more than worth it. It was unlikely that Jean would open up, but Armin really wondered what he would think if he ever did find out more about Jean.  

Nobody at the table said anything and they waited in a pregnant silence that pressed against the sizzling, puffing and squealing from the kitchen.

 

 

 

 

For the remainder of the day, there hadn't been much in the way of conversation. Eren kept throwing Jean cautious glances whenever he was in sight, and he kept raising his eyebrows at Armin as though that was sufficient for Armin to understand what he was meaning to convey. Despite not wanting to admit as much, for once in his life Armin knew exactly what Eren wanted him to understand. This kid was weird. Or the circumstances around him were weird. Regardless, there was definitely something to be concerned about but it was not as though Armin and Eren could discuss as much with the kid sitting a foot behind them.

When Jean opened his Nintendo DS and flipped it shut with a loud click, Eren threw Armin yet another pointed look.

Illinois blurred past the windows as Eren drove them to their first proper stop with their new companion.

 

Jean looked confused when Eren stopped the car and started placing the little figurines on the dashboard into the glove compartment. He got out of the car though after Armin and kicked the door a few times as they waited for Eren to finish clearing off the dashboard.

"Welcome to Springfield," Armin said with a wry smile.

"I don't get it," Jean replied flatly.

Armin coughed uncomfortably and removed the sunglasses he was wearing, aware that it was reaching the time of day that he would start to look like an idiot if he continued to wear them. His head was feeling a bit better anyway. He didn't quite look in Jean's direction while he waited for Eren to properly make sure he locked the car. It was hard to think of anything other than Jean offering himself to two men he had met only that day. There was clearly something amiss. Armin just didn't particularly want to ask Jean about it just in case it scared him off.

When Eren was finally confident that he had in fact locked his car, he led the way into the little Travelodge nearby. The woman behind the desk was understanding as Eren tried to change the room reservation to accommodate Jean, though Armin suspected that understanding had something to do with Eren's flirting. Armin was still sort of jealous that after all these years he had never quite learnt how to soften his face in just the right way to make whoever he was speaking to smile back and rake their eyes over him appreciatively. It might just have been because since Eren had grown his hair out he looked hotter than he used to and he was actually something to look at.

Eren's looks and selectively gentle manner got them a rickety little camp-bed in their room before he led them back out into the darkening afternoon. An unsuccessful postcard hunt was underway before Armin even realised and he just sighed as he followed Eren around looking for something that bore even the slightest resemblance to Springfield, Illinois. In the end, Eren grumbled and accepted defeat as he led the way to a small diner for their evening meal.

That was the first day of Jean's introduction to the Springfield tour. For two weeks already, Eren and Armin had been visiting the different Springfield cities around the US. It was something they had been planning for years after their shared interest in The Simpsons developed to the point of an obsession. It was a wonder they managed to agree on just the cities when Eren was initially adamant that they must visit every Springfield on the globe.

It might have actually been this Springfield tour that was dampening Armin's feelings towards The Simpsons. He had already begun to dread mealtimes where Eren alternated between singing " _I like pizza, I like bagels, I like hotdogs with mustard and beer. I'll eat eggplant, I could even eat a baby deer la la la la la lalala_!" and thanking the lord for "this bountiful penis". If Eren made another reference to a ‘ _Sop sign,_ ’ Armin refused to be held responsible for the aftermath.

Jean didn't seem to be too impressed by it at all, but he suddenly had no choice but to go along with Armin and Eren as they searched for different Simpsons toys and postcards of the Springfield they were in that they posted to their friend back in Florida. Springfield, Illinois turned to Springfield, Tennessee and Jean became more and more withdrawn the more snacks and Simpsons toys that were pressed into his arms.

 

Eren's energy seemed to have run down by the time he had started off on the drive to find somewhere to sleep for the night. After the eighth Springfield, and Jean's second, they had driven into Kentucky. Armin had managed to get away with not driving at all, though he was starting to feel bad about it. He'd probably try to take over for a bit in the morning. Maybe. Eren's lack of vitality was probably rubbing off on all of them really, because Armin felt dulled by to hum of the car and the lack of conversation. He wasn't exactly expecting much from Jean and his expectations were met in the silence of the drive.

Each time Armin glanced back to look at Jean, he saw the boy biting his nails and glaring out the window. He looked kind of mean and he definitely reminded Armin of Eren. When he had met Eren, he had thought it sensible to avoid the glowering menace. All the other kids did, unless they were somehow drawn into fights with Eren, so the warning seemed clear enough.

Whether it was because Eren had a peculiar sense of justice, or he just liked fighting, Armin was not certain about to this day, but they started a strange sort of friendship when Eren came to Armin's rescue. Some kids were picking on him for being a know-it-all, and the more Armin tried to be himself and stand up for himself, the worse things became. When they got physical, Eren decided that his time to make an appearance. Armin hadn't been sure how scared he should have been when Eren leapt onto the scene with his face screwed up with aggression.

He trembled and cowered as Eren kicked and punched at Armin's bullies and it only got worse when they gathered their bearings and paid Eren back tenfold.

Jean didn't look like much of a fighter, but he didn't really look as though he was surrounded by friends. If anybody had the inclination to throw a punch or two Jean's way, it was unlikely that Jean had a friend who would hide with him during break times and split their lunch with him when his locker was ransacked and his bag and pockets turned out for every penny he was carrying. That was where the differences between Eren and Jean began to show. By the time Eren got to Jean's age, he had Armin. Armin sort of hoped he could say he was there for Jean too, but in reality he was just some strange guy who'd picked Jean up.

These days, Eren still threw himself into fights for the sake of it. These days he also wore his hair long - longer than Armin ever had - and it almost seemed to taunt people into fights with him, as though the length of his hair was a challenge to see whether anybody had the gall to grab great chunks of hair and yank at it until Eren couldn't fight back. It seemed like an odd thing to do as many people did rise to the challenge and Eren was left pouting and massaging his scalp as Mikasa and Armin administered what little first aid they picked up over the years.

In the car, Jean continued to glare out the window at the scenery that passed the trio by. For all his scowling and gurning, Armin decided Jean probably wasn't the type to needlessly involve himself in fights. That thought made Armin a little happier.

 

Some stunted conversations later, Eren decided he was too tired to keep driving and he pulled into the car park of a bed and breakfast that looked extremely floral from the outside.

"We're going to stay here?" Armin queried as he peered through the windscreen at the large bushes that posed frozen explosions along the path up to the front door. If there were this many flowers outside, and even on the sign, there must have been one hundred and eighty four percent more flowers on the inside.

"That's someone's grandma's house," Jean mumbled under his breath. Eren didn't seem to hear but Armin let out a relieved little breath at the realisation that Jean was still going to keep some verbal contact with them.

"Is your grandma's house like this?"

"Dunno."

"What the hell are you guys even talking about?" Eren asked tiredly. He was slumped over the steering wheel and only really looking in Armin's general direction.

"We're just talking," Armin shrugged.

"Right. Whatever. I'm going to get us a room at Grandma's house. Stay in the car just in case I come back crying with exhaustion and begging you to drive us somewhere else." Eren practically rolled out of the car before slamming the door shut and all but staggering across the tiny car park to the quaint little B&B.

The slam of the door was not all that harsh but it was too quiet after the engine died and Eren was gone. Armin peered through the dark to watch Eren until he disappeared behind sprays of green and pink, illuminated by the harsh white light above the door, and felt himself at a loose end when he didn't even have that distraction. He couldn't help but remember Jean's proposition and he wasn't entirely sure where he stood with the teenager at this point. Whether they could really attempt to navigate an actual conversation or Armin would end up with his chagrined face burning at the memory of Jean's words.

Several silent, minutes later, Eren returned with a dull smile and a lethargic thumbs up. Armin was glad, if only for the fact that he wouldn't need to drive anywhere. And it felt good to get away from Jean's heavy silences.

The next night was different though. Eren and Armin practically force-fed Jean and point-blank refused to leave the B&B - and then a little roadside diner, and then a sandwich shop, and then a mobile burger bar sitting in a lay-by - until Jean had finished every last morsel they bought for him. Maybe it was because they'd hardly seen him so much as sniff at food the few days before, but it went unsaid between the two men that they wanted to get some food in Jean. It would be good for him. What was the point in them giving him a lift and telling him they'd take care of him if they neglected the most basic needs?

Eating was obviously the most basic need to fulfil. Then was drinking, rest, shelter, and allowing him to relieve himself in dirty, cramped restrooms at service stations. Jean either had a very tiny bladder, or he was just pushing his luck with how frequently he mumbled a question about whether or not they could stop so he could have a piss. After the first few times they had to stop it ceased to be a surprised, especially when each stop at a motel or B&B included Jean spending an hour in the bathroom upon arrival.

On the road Armin didn't really think much of the repeated question being the only thing Jean ever said, aside from his feeble protestations against the food the men shoved at him obtusely. He didn't think much of the fact he asked Armin to accompany him each time. Armin simply figured it was because Jean wanted to avoid a situation where it looked like he was alone and vulnerable. Or maybe Armin's presence would shame him into not offering himself to random men who happened to be around. Or maybe it was a comfort, knowing that Eren wouldn't drive off without his best friend and by extension Jean was guaranteed a ride too.

Armin began to realise he might have been wrong when Jean shuffled out of the bathroom stall on his fourth bathroom break of the day and managed to get just a bit too close to Armin while he washed his hands. Hands dripping, he leaned into Armin's space, his lips almost brushing against Armin's jaw as he muttered, “If he wasn't here, you wouldn't say no to me."

Armin swallowed hard and his eyes darted everywhere as Jean dried his hands. He was certain that Jean was wrong.

When they finally got to Springfield, Missouri, and Eren went to ask about a room in a motel that night, Armin grimly settled on the fact that Jean might just have been spot on earlier. Alone with Jean in the silent car, the atmosphere was different to the evening before. It wouldn't be long before Eren returned, Armin knew that, but Jean was leaning forwards in the back seat. Jean drew his knuckles along Armin's jaw and his breathing was heavy enough to disturb the hair around Armin's ears.

"Are you going to let me pay you back?"

“We already told you that there is no need for money.”

“You know what I mean.”

“We’re doing you a favour.”

“Let me return the favour then.”

"You're just a kid," Armin replied steadily, his eyes trained on the peeling plaster of the building before him.

"I get that I'm not much to look at or anything, but a lot of people don't really care as long as they manage to get off. I wasn't lying. I really am good."

There was something about Jean's voice that didn't quite settle well in Armin's ears. There was a slight quake to his words. He sounded desperate for Armin to understand. He was scared.

"I'm not talking about the way you look, I'm talking about your age. You shouldn't feel like you need to do this."

"What else am I supposed to do? I can't give you money and I can't just say thank you and be done with it. This is like, a pretty big debt. Please."

There was a moment when Armin almost thought he wouldn't do it. In that very brief moment, Armin thought he could be proud of himself for being sensible about this. That moment ended when Armin twisted around in his seat and surged to meet Jean's mouth. He was glad that he caught Jean by surprise, glad that this was the teenager's chance to back out. He was only young and if that shocked him enough he could back out. But Jean didn't back out. He kissed back and Armin felt his will wither and he relaxed into the kiss long enough to be a promise. He pulled away and said, "Later. If we get a room."

 

 

Eren's humming was loud through the bathroom door and this was the one situation in which Armin thought an en-suite might be a bit dangerous. In that same vein it was a bit more of a thrill though.

Jean was sat on the bed where scores of others must have sat with the same intentions that Jean had in mind. In this plainly seedy motel, so many people would have sat in the exact same place as Jean as a prelude to sex. The difference here was that Jean was a little boy and he would only be doing anything sexual with Armin as payment that the man had trouble refusing. It was a bit of a moral grey area because Armin felt guilty saying no as much as he did at the thought of saying yes to the boy. But he had the feeling Jean would make good on his threat to run off with someone who would take his payment and Armin didn't really trust anybody else to look after him.

So Armin sat next to Jean on the bed, maybe a bit too close because Jean shuffled away as he angled himself towards Armin.

Not a word had been spoken since Eren left the room Armin wanted to ask if everything was all right, yet speaking would break the spell. He had built up this resolve and he decided it was best to let it carry him along rather than find a way to talk himself out of this.

The press of Jean's lips against his own was tentative and nervous and Armin wondered whether this really was the right thing to do. Jean leaned in closer though and curled his fingers at the back of Armin's neck. His hand was hot. He was hot all over, Armin found out as he slid a more adventurous hand up under the hem of Jean's T-Shirt and his fingertips discovered heated skin that was still a bit damp from his shower.

Armin would have been lying if he ever even hinted that he was not curious about Jean. The boy had said that using his body to pay two kind strangers would be no trouble because he'd had experience before. The way that Jean kissed was unexpected because it was not the nervous licking and fumbling of an underage kid trying to work things out, it was the ferocious assault of someone who had learnt from someone a lot more experienced than himself. Jean couldn't have been older than fifteen, yet his kisses were stealing Armin's breath and beckoning a thick fug of lust into his thoughts.

It was more intense than Armin had imagined it would be and the kissing only made Armin more curious about Jean. Thoughts of everything else were being buried beneath the insistent need to keep going with this, to really see what Jean could do. Luckily, Armin did have some of his wits about him and he was aware enough to roughly shove Jean away from him when he heard an odd scuffing noise from the corner of the room. Jean was staring at him, confused and maybe a bit hurt, until the door to the bathroom opened and Eren wandered into the room whilst humming loudly. Eren stopped just inside the room, his shoulders and hair damp with a smattering of droplets from the shower, and a towel wrapped around his waist.

The humming stopped and he fixed the pair with a scrutinising look as he said, "What are you two plotting?"

Armin's heart was in his mouth because Eren was slightly dense but he was really looking at the two he had nearly walked in on. What would Armin say if Eren actually bothered to put two and two together to discover that Armin had dared to touch the boy? Apparently nothing, as he made his way further into the room and started rooting through the bag he had thrown onto the other bed.

"Feel free to keep planning a really great surprise for me when I get back to the shower. I'll just take the opportunity to remind you now that I love a good steak. You should call Mikasa too. I'll remember to act really surprised when she shows up and we all hang out and have a day dedicated to me."

"I'll bear that in mind," Armin said steadily.

"Awesome," Eren grinned. He emerged from his back with a clean T-shirt and one of his many pairs of Simpsons doughnut underwear and walked back to the bathroom. Before he disappeared through the door he winked and pointed a finger-gun Armin's way. Armin really wondered how he had gotten away with that one and Jean's expression was the same nonplussed relief.

"I'm sorry," Jean mumbled quietly, turning in on himself after the disruption of Eren.

"No," Armin said. He reached for one of Jean's hands and felt a bit less nervous when Jean offered the hand willingly. Slowly, just a small test, Armin trailed his hand up Jean's arm and rested it on his elbow. "Do you still want to do this?"

"I need to do this," Jean said perhaps a little more firmly than Armin would have expected.

Armin wasn't sure about this being something that Jean _needed_ to do, but he let his happen anyway. He felt a little bit ashamed of himself that he was being swept up in the enthusiastic neediness in the kisses from Jean, but he knew he would have plenty of time later on to dwell on that. He still balked when Jean went for his belt and made light work of unbuckling it and then unfastening Armin's jeans.

There was no time to dwell on the shame that he was in fact hard from the kisses of a teenage boy, and the curiosity of the extent of the boy's capabilities, because before Armin knew it Jean's mouth was on him. His hand stroked along the length almost daintily at first while his tongue swirled around the head and he had stretched the muscle so it lathed over Armin's cock artfully. His eyes were closed as the fingers of his left hand stroked through the wiry gold of Armin's pubes and his head bobbed up and down.

Armin sighed and gently combed his fingers through the longer, lighter hair around Jean's crown and wondered how roughly the boy had been treated in the past. He wondered whether the men in Jean's past had been gentle or whether they had roughly forced Jean's head down until he was choking. He wondered how many of them men had coerced Jean into acts like these and how many hid behind flimsy excuses of feeling as though they simply must indulge the boy - who knows what he could be getting up to if good old Armin wasn't here to keep an eye on Jean, and also have his way with the boy while he was at it?

It wasn't too long before Jean had Armin whining into the back of his hand, desperate not to be heard by Eren over the sound of the shower. It wasn't too long before Jean was pretending to sleep on the furthest bed - the single - and Eren ambled into the room humming and complaining that the room smelled a bit funny. It wasn't too long before Armin was carefully giving a vague reply before announcing that he was off to have a shower himself, and asking Eren to leave him some room on the bed instead of falling into a heavy slumber right in the middle of the mattress.

 

 

 

Armin really honestly wished he could say that was the only time he had Jean.  

There were several times over the next few days where Armin was alone with Jean. It was odd, because Armin had hoped he wouldn't be tempted to touch the boy again, but there was this switch that activated as soon as Eren was out of range and suddenly Armin couldn't suppress the desire. He would reach out for Jean and kiss at the downturned corners of his frowning mouth.

Jean would yield to the touch and cautiously press himself against Armin in any way that he could until Armin decided Eren could return at any moment and he would push the boy away. Jean would stumble back easily and frown at anything and everything that was not Armin.

In a dirty, cramped bathroom on the way to Nebraska, Armin fucked Jean quickly and as silently as the pair of them could manage. Armin tried not to concentrate on the reflection in the grimy, cracked mirror where he could see determinedly impassive mask Jean wore until he was close to coming and he finally started to come apart.

Lunchtime, in Springfield, Nebraska, Armin and Jean left Eren to pay the bill because he needed to go to the bathroom. Needless to say, Armin pounced on the chance of claiming another headache - another excuse not to drive - before pressing Jean into the backseat of the car and stroking his dick with measured precision until he came, gasping and clinging on to the man above him.

It seemed that every second Armin could get alone with Jean became a moment when he should be touching the sour-faced boy. Every moment without contact was a moment wasted and Armin wasn't even sure how he started thinking that way. He was sure he used to have room in his life for things that wouldn't get him into so much trouble. He used to have room for things in his life that definitely mattered more than a kid he met a few days ago. A week ago. Maybe more. Armin wasn't even sure at this point.

He'd always planned for these days to be filled with laughing and joking with Eren, quoting The Simpsons even more than they usually did, buying crappy morphed Simpsons figurines, searching for postcards and little curios unique to each Springfield, and competing to buy the worst Simpsons merchandise possible. Somehow some of those moments faded out of significance in favour of buying all of this Simpsons crap for Jean, forcing him to get into pictures and talk to Mikasa on the phone, and trying to make him cum as many times as he dared.

Springfield, Minnesota brought a change in Jean. His reluctance waned and he frequently offered to take photographs of Eren doing stupid poses around the city. After filling up the camera of ridiculous shots of Eren gurning and preening in front of every building that took Eren's fancy, he even willingly took the phone from him to have a short conversation with Mikasa. Afterwards he even mumbled that he thought she sounded nice and that he wished he had a friend like her.  

 South Dakota brought a sudden change in Eren. He went all quiet and wouldn't look Armin in the eye and there was one long moment when he did finally look at Armin with a visage brimming with shame. Armin didn't have so much of a guilty conscience that he instantly confessed to his crimes, but he did wonder whether Eren actually knew. If he did know what Armin had done, he didn't say anything and instead mumbled something about going to the toilet. In the most feeble attempt to make amends, Armin offered to drive.

It was stupid because something as little and unrelated as driving the car for a couple of hours was nothing, in the grand scheme of things. Driving would definitely not make up for what he had done. It wouldn't make his actions any more acceptable. But it did something to appease the guilt within Armin, and realising that fact did bring on another swell of guilt around an hour into his turn driving. 

On the drive to Oregon, the three of them camped out. It was an idea Eren had from the conception of this trip, that he and Armin should stop somewhere along the drive to Oregon just to camp out under the stars. They'd bought a bag of chilli heatwave Doritos for Jean when he mumbled about not particularly liking the cheese ones. Jean also had to remind them to buy something to drink along with all the marshmallows and pretzels Eren insisted they needed. Before they paid, Jean also sheepishly handed Armin a bag of small, bruised apples and said fruit was important. So they added apples to their pile of snacks and the cost of filling up the tank of Eren's car.

"Who had the bright idea of camping outside?" Eren asked when he realised he had forgotten to bring half of the tent. It was all well and good having the metal rods of the frame sitting in the back of the car for months and months on end, but it would probably have helped if the covering to actually shelter them was somewhere sensible. Now the sun was setting and the temperature was dropping in the clearing in the woods where they had parked.

"I really wonder who that could have been," Armin replied dryly.

"I have literally no idea," Eren grumbled, throwing his arms into the air when another cursory search proved fruitless. "A bleeding idiot, whoever it was."

"Do you want me to keep a written record of this? You calling yourself an idiot?"

"Just. Shush. Don't you have a pretend headache coming on?"

"Ooh, now that you mention it, I suppose I will leave you to deal with this by yourself."  

"Yeah, you do that," Eren grumbled as he glared at the frame of the tent.

"Come on, Jean, we'll wait in the car until the genius over there works something out."

"Good luck with that," Eren yelled, pointing a narrow pole at Armin's back. "I have the car keys, remember."

Armin opened the door to the back seat - the door that didn't stick - and grinned sarcastically at his friend as he slid gracefully into the car. Eren wailed loudly and Jean looked nervously over to him as though making any further move to get into the car would cause Eren some injury. Armin reached out of the car and tugged on Jean's sleeve.

"Just get in," he said, "If you stand around out there you'll only get colder the later it gets."

Around three minutes later, Eren squashed himself into the backseat of the car alongside Jean, sans the tent skeleton.

"Are you admitting defeat?"

Eren repeated the question in a snide squeak and crossed his arms over his chest. It was quiet for a moment before Eren said, "At least crack the Doritos open. I'm starving."

The three of them were squashed in the back seat of the car, eating the snacks they bought and drinking lemonade that was a little bit too cool to be considered warm too warm to be truly refreshing. Eren and Armin recited whole scenes of Simpsons episodes and tried to jog Jean's memory of them, adamant that he could not possibly have lived his life without watching them. Sometimes he nodded and chuckled at the men re-enacting the cartoon, but other times he would politely smile and mumble something about sort of remembering the episode. It was quite cramped in the back of the car, but they were laughing and drinking and joking. Perhaps not the night sleeping out under the stars that they had planned, but it was close enough really. 

Armin was the first one to excuse himself to empty his bladder and found cover between a cluster of small trees and a thicket of brambles. He took the moment in the frigid evening to reflect on the road trip so far. Armin could barely remember what had happened before Jean joined them, but they had the photos and the souvenirs of each of the first six Springfields. Before jean joined them, it was him and Eren just taking their time and looking around at how different each of the cities was. They went to amusement arcades and shopping centres and bars and fancy restaurants, but none of the money spent really felt like anything more special than the time they spent sitting at home on Eren's sofa and marathoning the Simpsons.

It was not as though Armin could particularly recall anything specific about the latter six Springfields they had visited, but he definitely remembered how Jean behaved on each stop along the journey. He could recall in crystal clarity how Jean begrudgingly joined in conversations and accepted everything Eren and Armin bought for him. Of course it was easy to remember how it was in Missouri that Armin accepted Jean's offer. Missouri was the first time Armin touched Jean - the first time he got to touch him, he should say, because there was a certain inevitability to Armin's desire. He probably would have become vaguely interested in the boy eventually, it was just that with such an offer before him Armin didn't have the resolve to view him as just a child.

When Armin got back to the car, he ignored how Eren's hair was messy and how he and Jean were staring out of opposite windows and not saying anything. Armin tried to get the conversation back to the way it had been before, but he found that neither Jean nor Eren really wanted to match his enthusiasm. He couldn't say he didn't see it coming when Jean went to go for a wee and Eren scrambled across the backseat and grasped at Armin's shoulders.

"Do you think there's something weird about him?"

"Not really," Armin lied.

"Right, no. Of course. It's just. I have been feeling a little bit funny lately but I was thinking I might feel a little bit better if I told you what I think is wrong with him. Because I think there is something weird about him."

"Okay," Armin said. "Could you not try to tear my arms off my body though?"

Eren blinked, uncomprehending, until his eyes darted to his hands and with a shaky smile he released his grip on Armin's shoulders.

"Sorry. Okay. Down to business. So I asked him who he knew in California."

"Okay."

"Okay. Yeah. Because I've never even heard of Morro Bay before. It's not the usual place in California I'd expect a runaway to want to go to, is it?"

Armin frowned, not sure he'd ever heard of Morro Bay before this conversation. "Is that where he said he was going?" He asked. "Morro Bay? When did he say this?"

Eren looked surprised but shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know but I remember him telling me. Maybe you weren't there."

"Yeah, I guess I wasn't."

"So, anyway, I asked him and he told me it was this guy who lived next door to him. Don't you think that's suspicious?"

"Should I find that suspicious?" Armin returned levelly. He had the vaguest of ideas where this might be going, but admitting to Eren that he knew where this was going would mean admitting to doing something wrong. If he admitted as much, Eren would know what Armin had done.

"Do you think his neighbour might have done something to him?"

There was a long moment before Armin asked, "Like what?"

The colour drained from Eren's face and he absently combed his fingers through his hair before returning his gaze to meet Armin's. "Maybe this neighbour, like, touched him or something."

"If your neighbour 'touched' you, would you do anything to travel across the country to see him again?"

"I guess not, but..."

"But?"

"Please don't think any less of me for this," Eren whispered. Armin shook his head and tried to smile encouragingly, though it was likely he just looked nauseated. Eren nodded and picked at the frayed edges of the hole in the knee of his jeans. He went on, "You see, I sort of... He sounded really desperate about it and he wouldn't let it drop. I swear he, like, pick-pocketed somebody and tried to smuggle the money into my wallet. So, I mean, he was sort of forcing my hand. And then I took him up on that offer. Every offer he had made. I mean, I sort of, might have, had a tiny bit of sex with him. But I didn't mean to do it."

Armin very carefully did not react. He simply nodded the scar above Eren's left eyebrow and said, "I suppose it would have been more dangerous not to do it. If he was forcing himself upon you then I suppose if you wanted it too it wasn't the most unethical thing to do. Though I wouldn't go there again if I were you."

Eren snorted and stared down at his hands. "Trust you to be able to rationalise it for me. You do a lot for me, you know."

"I know."

"You're so humble too," Eren added sarcastically. He was more sincere when he glanced back up at Armin and asked, "So, you don't hate me?"

Armin couldn't hate Eren. Not really, not because of this. How could Armin hate Eren for something he'd done? Apparently Armin had done much worse. Armin had had more than just possibly had 'a tiny bit of sex' with Jean. He confirmed that he didn't hate Eren, each time that Eren asked. After the fifth time Eren made sure that Armin didn't hate him, it seemed to sink in and he launched himself at Armin and clung to him tightly.

The car door opened.

"Oh."

"Hi," Armin said, attempting a small wave that proved to be difficult seeing as Eren was holding his arms down. "Eren, move. He wants to get back in the car."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm moving," Eren muttered. He twisted around so that he was sitting in Armin's lap, leaving only his legs with the potential to get in Jean's way. He stroked his fingers gently through Armin's hair and leaned yet more heavily on his friend's shoulder.

Jean gingerly sat in the empty space and yanked the door shut.

Eventually. "So, uh. Are you two, like, a couple or something?"

"No, no, not at all" Armin said the same time Eren barked a harsh laugh and said, "Oh, god no."

"Oh. Right."

"Why would you think that?" Eren asked. Jean frowned at Eren before he turned his gaze to Armin.

"Maybe we're just a bit tactile sometimes," Armin said.

"Yeah. Sometimes."

"Why?"

"Nothing. It doesn't matter. I'd just been wondering for a while, is all." He pulled his bag of Doritos from the front passenger seat and held them delicately before muttering, "I feel a little bit better about things now though."

 

 

 

Despite acting as though he was more comfortable with Eren and Armin, Jean did start to withdraw as they did their sightseeing in Oregon. During the drive into California, even Eren hissed his concerns at how quiet Jean had become. He bit his lip and grabbed at Armin's arm to ask whether he thought Jean knew that Eren had been spilling his secrets. No, that wasn't it, Armin was sure of it.

Eren took to buying Jean more expensive meals and more tacky Simpsons merchandise in a bid to make it up to Jean, yet that seemed to make Jean frown, sigh and sneer more.

It was odd to see after seeing how much Jean had warmed up in the past couple of weeks. It might have been because they were reaching their final destination though. At the end of this drive south, jean would be leaving them. Jean would have no more need for all the gifts Eren and Armin had insisted on buying him. Despite the illegality of the contact, Jean seemed to fit well into their interactions. Jean would have fit well as a friend. Had he been born a few years earlier, he could have been a good friend to Mikasa, Armin and Eren.

But Jean was only a kid and they would be dropping him off with this old neighbour he'd claimed to have and then he would be gone. Likelihood was that he would become nothing more than a half-forgotten memory of a post-graduation road trip.

Armin had eventually taken the wheel again and they were well into California when jean cleared his throat from the back seat.

"I'm going to be gone soon, you know," He began in a voice that was maybe a little bit too loud for the confinement of the car. "I don't think it is fair that you have kept buying me things for nothing. I've tried to pay you back but you just keep adding to my debt."

"Uh, what?" Eren's voice cracked as he spoke.

"Usually people don't go so far out of their way for me."

"Sorry?"

"I don't think saying sorry will make it any better. That's just you being nicer to me. That's something else I need to pay back."

"Why do you think you need to pay us back? Can't we do anything for free?" Armin asked.

"I tried to think of everything as presents," Jean mumbled, "But then you kept being so nice to me. Like, friends give each other presents all the time, but it wouldn't be fair if I just kept accepting stuff without giving anything back in return."

"Friends?" Eren said.

"Whatever," Jean said.

 

 

 

The closing of the door was a dull clunk and a sharp click. Armin, Eren and Jean were all standing around the door, all of them knowing exactly what would happen but none of them particularly sure of where to start.

It was warm and sticky in the room and even if Armin went over to open one of the windows he was sure that would not help matters. It had been uncomfortably hot ever since they had driven West and the pressing heat felt more insistent now that it carried the undercurrent of anticipation. Very soon Armin and Eren would be leaving Jean in a tiny town in California and they wouldn't be able to look out for him anymore. Armin wouldn't be able to pretend he only felt concern for the boy while biting kisses into the skin below Jean's collar line and fucking into the tightness of his ass.

Armin had the sneaking suspicion that when they did leave him in Morro Bay, Jean would be with someone who did the exact same thing, only without the feigned concern, and that stirred up a bitter sickness in Armin's stomach. Thoughts like that made him jealous and possessive of a boy he had known for a shade over a week, even though Jean wouldn't appreciate it. Jean hadn't been at all forthcoming with information about this guy he claimed to know on the West Coast but he must have been an amazing character for Jean's desperation to see him to grow great enough to want to use his own body as payment to go and see him. It was a childish dedication but it turned Armin's mood bilious.

Eren probably didn't burn with jealousy at the thought of Jean only loaning them his body for the sake of giving it wholeheartedly to another man. Then again, Eren had seemed a lot more hesitant when it came to touching the boy. That was something Armin had to remind himself of - he had been lusting after a teenage boy for the best part of a week.

However he rationalised it that was about the size of it.

This week, even more so this evening, would be written off as an obscure footnote in Eren's life; something he would never mention or go to detail in, but something that he would remember as part of his more experimental youth. Armin was sure of that difference. Right now, Eren looked nervous as he wiped away a bead of sweat that rolled down from his hairline.

Right now Eren's hand was shaking as he reached for Jean's shoulder. Jean eyed the trembling hand before it slipped around the back of his neck to reach up and cradle the back of his head.

"What's up with this haircut?" Eren asked.

"I just liked it," Jean replied in a low voice.

"Oh. Okay. Cool."

"Yeah. Cool."

"I'm allowed to kiss you, right?"

"You've kissed me before."

Eren's eyes flickered to Armin, full of guilt even though he must have known that Armin had done the same and so much more. In fact Eren himself had confessed to Armin that he's had Jean suck his dick yet here was where he chose to be shy and remorseful about a kiss. A nod from Armin was all it took for this sudden guilt to dissipate and Eren's hand threaded through the hair at Jean's crown was counterbalanced by a hand at Jean's hip. Expectantly, Jean tilted his head up to receive the kiss that was to come but, even though Eren ducked his head, he went no further.

Jean's fingers were twisted into the hem of Eren's shirt and his mouth had dropped open as though he wanted to say something though the words wouldn't come. Armin suspected it was because Jean was afraid he couldn't ask anything, that his offer as payment for the kindness shown to him meant he shouldn't ask for what he wanted. He did eventually speak though.

"You can do whatever you want to me, you know. You don't need to ask for permission to do anything."

Eren took the opportunity to send a frown Armin's way but all he got in return was a shrug. Obviously Eren and Armin wouldn't do anything they didn't think Jean wanted. It was nice that he showed them that much trust - well the assumption of trust was preferable to the alternative that Jean simply did not care what happened to him.

They didn't need to ask for permission, whatever that meant. Armin slowly approached the duo and stood behind Jean's back. The light pressure of Armin trailing his knuckles up Jean's back was all he needed to press forwards into Eren and beg for a kiss with a soundless whisper.

There was still some uncertainty behind Eren's actions but at least he wasn't timidly backing out and demanding to know why Jean was sneaking money into his wallet. It was odd for Armin to see how Eren kissed from this proximity and it surprised him that it didn't entirely turn him off. He busied himself with latching his mouth onto Jean's neck and licking and sucking at the curve of skin so sticky with sweat. It definitely didn't turn him off to hear Jean start gasping and quietly groaning into Eren's mouth when Armin pressed against the skin with his teeth.

A strange wantonness encompassed all of Jean's actions and Armin wondered whether it was innate or whether he had been trained into an inviting presence who could transform into an oddly seductive being at the drop of a hat. Jean was writhing into Eren's front, and then pushing back against Armin, and it must have been a little show he was putting on. It must have been an over the top display rather than a genuine reaction but Armin most certainly wanted to see more.

Very gently, Armin's hands crept to the waistband of Jean's scruffy shorts and deftly unfastened them before pushing them down from his waist. Just as he thought, Jean grew more into the performance the more he was unwrapped.

The sounds Jean made when Armin wrapped his fingers around his cock petered out into more authentic gasps and suppressed moans; Armin hardly had a chance to wonder why Jean was so loud before, yet wanted to keep his honest reactions quiet, as Eren had descended to his knees and was licking around Armin's fingers and up Jean's shaft. Stuttering, choked sounds leaked through Jean's hands as he covered his face, and Armin pressed himself more firmly against the boy's back. Jean was red, from his ears and the back of his neck all the way down his chest, and his mouth had dropped open with a low groan.

He was beautiful.

Armin pried Jean's hands away from his face for a chance to lick into his wanting, gaping mouth. The kiss was sloppy and Armin ended up slathered. Very subtly, Armin retrieved a small tube of lube from his trouser pocket and managed to apply some to his fingers without looking before spreading Jean's ass cheeks and pushing a finger in. It was perhaps a bit mean to surprise Jean like that, but Armin found it hard to care when Jean was panting at Armin over his shoulder and trying to retain some composure.

Very slowly, Armin opened the boy up with languid fingers while Eren licked and sucked at Jean's cock. Armin made mental notes of the shapes his hand made whenever Jean's whimpers and shivers were especially pronounced and he started to revisit those shapes and signals when Jean started to tip forward over Eren, knees weak and resolve even weaker.

Jean came, trembling and close to tears, crouching over Eren and grasping his shoulders for support while Armin leaned over him and whispered reassurances into the back of his neck.

"You're really great, you know that. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Eren replied hoarsely as he wiped at the threads of spit and cum between his mouth and a wad of tissue he'd retrieved from his pocket.

"Shut up," Armin said lightly. He gently withdrew his fingers from Jean's ass and pulled him up so he could easily wind his arms around the boy's chest. "Do you want to stop?"

"No, no," Jean mumbled feebly as he scrubbed at his eyes. Armin didn't have the heart to be contrary when Jean said, "I'm not crying."

"Okay. That's good. As long as you're alright," Armin said softly as he led Jean over to the double bed that was lying vacantly in wait of bodies.

Jean went easily, curling onto his side and pressing himself into the pillows instinctively. Though he seemed to at first be cowering from the touch of another, he was malleable as Armin pulled the boy's shorts and pants off before manoeuvring him onto his back. He simply watched what Armin was doing with dark eyes until Armin was settled between his legs, stroking cautious fingers along Jean's thighs. It was a bit of an odd sensation with the beginnings of leg-stubble prickling at the pads of Armin's fingertips.

He wasn't sure why Jean would shave his legs, though the expression on the boy's face seemed to be daring Armin to ask. He didn't. He just smoothed his hand down the warm skin and swiped his thumb over the smattering of pubic hair that seemed to be growing back around the base of Jean's cock.

Armin lifted Jean's knees up so the boy could firmly plant the soles of his feet on the mattress below. He avoided looking at Eren for a moment. It was still strange to think of the fact that his best friend was seeing him in this scenario. It was weird seeing Eren himself on his knees for Jean. But they were doing this for the sake of Jean. It was supposed to be them paying him back what he had paid them.

In a singular moment of sobriety, it seemed like an odd way to pay back a favour. Eren was already on his side beside Jean on the bed, caressing his cheek and gently chasing kisses. So it seemed there would be no point to questioning it.

Armin ducked his head and swiped his tongue along Jean's soft cock, making him twist his hips away for a moment before Eren and Armin rolled him back. He grasped at Eren's hand, twining their fingers as he sought out Eren's lips, tongue, teeth, breath. He seemed more placid like this, with someone to hold him and spoil him like that.

It was a nice thing to notice, Armin thought as he moved lower and licked at Jean's hole. Jean mewled lightly into Eren's mouth at the sensation and Armin continued. He smoothed his hands over the warm, pliant skin and he swirled his tongue around Jean's entrance, glad of the artificial banana taste from the lube he had used to open the boy up.

Armin kept going, kept licking inside cautiously. The sounds Jean was making were small squeaks that made Armin hungrier to hear them. He wondered whether Eren had the same thoughts on the sounds, whether it made him want to kiss Jean harder and leave him worked-up and desperate. It made Armin want to press the sounds more forcefully out of Jean, and he found satisfaction when he pushed two fingers into Jean along with his tongue.

Jean's hips nudged towards Armin's face, silently begging for more. Maybe less silent when he pushed himself onto Armin's fingers and he cried out into Eren's mouth. His cock was hardening and Eren was slowly moving the loose fist of his hand up and down Jean’s prick as Armin stroked and licked at his insides.

"Thank you," Jean moaned quietly.

"What for?" Eren asked, a gentle coo that had even Armin's heart melting a bit.

"For this, for everything." Jean's breath hitched on the last syllable and he pressed his lips to Eren's shoulder as Armin still worked him open with his fingers. "I almost don't want to leave."

Armin's fingers stilled and he bit his lip as he glanced over at Eren's stricken face.

"Don't say it like that," Eren said. "We'll come back for you. You need to come to Florida and meet Mikasa."

"Yeah, you still need to meet her. She'll love you. You'll love her. We are definitely going to come and get you again," Armin agreed.

"Even if we have only just got home. If you give us a ring, we will drive all the way back here to come and get you. Then we'll take you home. Then maybe we'll take you to your home too if you want us to. Either way, we'll watch old episodes of The Simpsons and we can play Road Rage and Hit and Run together."

There was something stiff about Jean's voice as he said, "Yes. Of course."

Eren must have heard it too because his face was almost pressed right up against Jean's as he pleaded, "You have to call us, okay. We need to know that you're okay."

"I'm fine right now. I'm just glad that- I'm being dumb. This is neither the time nor the place."

"If you want to talk-"

"No. No." Jean chuckled hollowly before adding, "You can do... whatever."

There were maybe fifteen seconds before Armin realised that doing 'whatever' meant that he definitely needed to fuck into Jean right then. He managed to open the condom wrapper despite the nervous trembling of his fingers and he rolled the condom on as properly as he could in a rush. Pushing into Jean this time was different to all the times before. Jean gritted his teeth braced himself as though he was expecting the worst as Armin eased his cock inside. Jean stayed mostly still and waited for Armin to do as he wished, rather than all the other times he had been a lot less passive with his actions, using his body to tell Armin what he should want.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stop?" Armin asked quietly, as though that would make the question any more private. But of course, Eren was there to hold Jean's hand and stroke through Jean's hair and ask for double the confirmation that Jean was fine with this.

"Just do it. Please."

So Armin rolled his hips and pushed deeper into Jean. This was met by a thrust from Jean who had taken to holding onto the headboard. He whined a little as he kept pushing into Armin's slow, rolling thrusts, though the effort to suppress the sounds fell apart when Eren's hands slowly dragged up the hem of Jean's t-shirt so he could swirl his fingertips around his nipples.

Armin had to admit it was kind of hot watching Jean's reactions - desperate youth trying to hide the fact that any of this was affecting him - as Eren stroked over the bright pink points of his nipples, as Eren licked and sucked at his nipples before trailing messy kisses across his chest, as he pushed back into Armin's languid thrusts. Just watching this would have made Armin more painfully aroused so this combined with the timid roll of hips and the stifled groans as he pushed into the boy made this just that bit closer to perfect.

Jean continued to stifle the sounds that begged the flow from his mouth as Armin pounded into him and Eren caught each and every one of those sounds with a lick or a nip. After one particularly breathless gasp, Eren got a glint in his eye. It was the sort of glint that suggested an idea he had never had before. That was all the warning that preceded Eren slicking his fingers with lube and ever so gently pressing them where Armin and Jean were joined.

It was already so tight but then Eren so very slowly pushed in the tips of two fingers. Jean screwed his eyes shut and groaned minutely.

"Do you want me to stop?" Eren asked softly. Jean shook his head quickly and Eren puffed out a relieved chuckle. "If there's anything you don't like, just tell us to stop, or do something different."

"Yeah, I get it," Jean muttered despite his breathlessness. He looked as though he was scowling a bit, under the deep blush and the slight furrow in his brow as he appeared to concentrate on the stimulation in his nether-regions. That expression gave way to the more honest gaping surprise when, with a twist, Eren managed to slide his fingers in deeper. Armin hissed but kept rolling his hips.

This wasn't like any of the other times Armin had had Jean. This time there was Eren. This time he could take his time on a bed, rather than snap his hips quickly as he pressed Jean against a grimy bathroom wall. This time Armin was well aware of how futile his fantasy of languidly making love to Jean really was.

He tried his best to focus on the moment as he moved with the boy, though he could not help wonder why this felt both more and less intimate than all of the other times they had touched. It was as though he had less of Jean because of Eren's presence, but it was because he was sharing this with his best friend that he could have so much more.

It was with a strange reluctance that Jean came undone. He came, gasping and shuddering with Eren's hand stroking his cock, Eren's teeth pressed gently into the skin covering his ribs, and Eren's fingers still minutely twisting within him alongside Armin's cock. Jean clutched at Eren's arm before sliding his fingers through the cum on his stomach as though it surprised him. He had just enough time to gape confusedly at Armin before Eren withdrew his fingers, Eren slid his other hand up over Jean's chest, Eren took to licking into Jean's mouth, and then Armin fucked into Jean hard enough to force out timid yelps with each thrust.

When Armin came, gripping onto Jean's lithe thighs and hunched over the body that was gingerly arching up into him, even he felt a little bit confused. He pulled out and shuffled away and, for all his guilt before, Eren crawled over Jean's body. Jean seemed so much smaller now, more like the size he had seemed when he was that kid milling around a car park in Chicago who needed rescuing. Now Jean seemed as though he craved the canopy of Eren's body, even if he frowned against it and held the man's sides with loose fists.

"I'm a little scared for you," Eren whispered, his lips almost touching Jean's, his breath almost being the breath that Jean would inhale.

"Why?"

"Because, you're so small and young. I want to be able to protect you."

"Yeah. It totally sounds like you're worried about my wellbeing while you're rubbing your hard-on against my leg."

Eren blushed a little at that and he tilted his head to the side. He caught Armin's eyes and quickly looked away, more chagrined heat rising in his face. Armin could not help but stare at the indulgent way Eren gazed down at Jean, and the way Jean determinedly avoided the gaze.

Eventually Jean reached up to tuck a lock of Eren's hair behind his ear and Eren smiled. Jean didn't smile but at least he was looking up at Eren. "Slowly, please. I think I might be reaching my limit."

Eren agreed as though this was something much more solemn before he dropped a chaste kiss on Jean's lips. He rolled on a condom and applied lube slowly before he gradually pushed into Jean. At first, Jean clung to him, whining and hissing as his body took in the length of Eren's cock, though before long he gave some minute signal that Eren could go faster.

It was weird, really, Armin thought, watching his best friend have sex with Jean. He didn't particularly want to watch all that much but he deduced it would be weird if he left now. He was considering whether it would be odd of him to go and get his book out of his bag and read on the floor until the other two finished up when he heard Jean bite off the end of a whine to say, "You can..."

Eren didn't do anything differently, as far as Armin could tell, and he did sort of wonder what it was that Jean wanted. He was just scanning the room to see where he'd thrown his bag earlier when Jean tightly said, "Armin."

It was the first time Jean had used Armin's name and it sounded a little odd coming from Jean's mouth. It was as though Jean had maybe practiced saying it in his mouth but was never able to vocalise it because it was never the right time. Apparently now was the right time. He needed to respond though.

"Yeah, what is it, Jean?"

"Can you... You can, like, kiss me or something, if you want."

Armin did want. He crawled across the mattress and linked his fingers with Jean's. He kissed him, though it was quite one sided with the way Eren was fucking into him and distracting him from anything that wasn't Eren.

Eren sat up and lifted Jean's hips onto his lap and that gave him a better angle to work with. And it also gave Armin a better angle to kiss along Jean's chest and stomach - lapping occasionally at the splashes of cum that remained - until he could wrap his lips around the head of Jean's half-hard cock. Eren stopped doing more than the odd swivel of his hips while Armin sucked and licked and Jean's cock and felt it grow harder in his mouth.

Jean's groans and the uncontrolled bucking of his hips were maybe everything Armin wanted. When his head was being pushed away from Jean's cock and a hand that was perhaps a little too small started stroking absently at the back of his neck, Armin realised he might want this too much. With the absence of Armin's head bobbing up and down as he sucked at the length and swirled his tongue around the head of Jean's cock, Eren moved his hips faster and faster until Jean was crying out and clenching his hands into fists. He came, biting at the back of his hand as Eren continued to pound into him.

 

That night the three of them managed to fit in the double bed. They made it work for the night, Jean nestled between Eren and Armin. They were a too-warm tangle of limbs but the heat was a satisfaction that Armin realised he couldn't really do without.

 

 

 

"When we get there," Jean started sombrely, "Just drop me off and drive away."

"What?" Armin asked, twisting in his seat to make eye-contact with Jean. Eren was driving so he couldn't react in a similar fashion, though it was obvious that he wanted to.

"I'll be fine. I've got your numbers. I just don't want you to wait around outside to see if I get let in or anything."

"Are we actually taking you to the right place?" Eren asked. "Or are you planning on making a run for it and getting picked up by someone else whose fare for the journey will equate to a quick fuck in the back of a van?"

"That's not funny," Armin grumbled.

"I wasn't trying to be."

"You're taking me to the right place," Jean said. "I just don't know if he'll let me in if he sees you waiting outside for me."

"Okay," Armin said. "We'll drive off as soon as you and your stuff are out. Is that what you want?"

"Yes."

 

By the time they got to the specified address, the car was silent. Jean didn't get out of the car and neither Armin nor Eren wanted to tell him to. Once Jean got out of the car and the two men drove off, that would be it. That would be the end of the journey, and that would be the end of their time together. Sure, they had exchanged numbers, but whether they actually stayed in contact with each other was a whole other matter.

There was some movement in the net curtain covering the downstairs window and Armin hissed, "Jean, look."

Jean was probably already looking though because he was scrambling to unfasten his seatbelt and gather up his bags.

"I guess I'll see you guys around. Or something."

"Yeah," Armin said.

"Call us. Text me. Whatever. Just keep us updated, please."

Jean hummed an affirmation to Eren before he bolted from the car.

"Drive," Armin muttered grimly as Jean trotted across the lawn. Eren turned the key in the ignition and drove them away from this weather-worn little house in Morro Bay, California where the air tasted dry and salty and the sky was a pale wash of cool blue. "Not too far though," Armin added.

"Obviously," Eren agreed. "Just to the end of the street. Just in case."


End file.
